Six months after the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change, The Elders are calling on world leaders to make good on their promises to cut emissions and ambitiously address climate change.

In a statement released today, The Elders — who include former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter, and former Norway Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, among others — warned that while they welcomed the adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP21 last year, climate action since then “does not convince us that leaders, especially of wealthy and large emitting countries, are acting in accordance with the vision they publicly embraced in Paris.”

This statement comes as leaders assemble in New York for the High Level Political Forum, meeting at the UN to discuss progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Elders note in today’s statement,

“Climate change matters to every aspect of the new development agenda. Without action to reduce carbon emissions and increase resilience, development cannot be sustainable. That is why action on climate change is critical to the achievement of the SDGs and must be central to discussions in New York this week.”

The two greatest concerns The Elders note in today’s statement both relate to inaction — inaction by the world’s 10 ten emitters to ratify the Paris Agreement, and continued inaction by leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies. They note that G20 governments are still providing US$444 billion a year in support of the production of fossil fuels, with some countries even increasing fossil fuel subsidies.

The Elders call on industrialized nations to lead the way in acting upon the Paris Agreement, urging them to deliver urgent action to lower emissions, end fossil fuel subsidies and invest in the low-carbon economy, put a price on carbon, and support developing countries’ efforts to transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient development.

Read the full statement by The Elders here

Image: The Elders (Left-right: Martti Ahtisaari, Graça Machel, Ela Bhatt, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Lakhdar Brahimi, Mary Robinson, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland) | Image Credit: The Elders